Notice

Competition document: International Space Pitch Day

Published 22 July 2020

1. Introduction

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) is piloting a new approach to accelerate the development of commercial space technology, to rapidly provide solutions to identified defence problems. To do so, the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) is seeking proposals that meet a selection of US Department of Defense (DOD) and UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) space capability challenges.

Those who are successful during the submission stage will be invited to present their ideas at an International Space Pitch Day (‘Pitch Day’) in November, to be held in London (or virtually, dependent on COVID-19 restrictions). This exciting event will offer innovators in space capability a unique opportunity to pitch to senior military decision-makers.

It is important that any potential defence solutions are able to keep pace with the rapid technological change seen in the commercial sector. This competition is therefore mainly focused on technologies that have proven commercial value, which can then be applied to military space capability problems.

£800k (approximately $1M) is available to fund up to 15 proposals, with a maximum value of £53k (approximately $67k) each. The duration of each of the funded projects is to be no longer than 3 months. This competition closes for submissions on Wednesday 2 September 2020 at midday BST.

To be eligible to submit a proposal, suppliers must first complete a registration questionnaire. The deadline for this is Wednesday 19 August 2020 at midday BST.

2. Competition Scope

2.1 Background

Building on the successful Accelerator and Pitch Day model, first developed by the US Air Force, Dstl have brought together a coalition of UK and US partners to pilot the first Allied Defence Accelerator and International Space Pitch Day.

The Accelerator and Pitch Day model, developed by DASA, represents an innovative way of working, ensuring that UK and US Defence are able to keep up with the rapid pace of commercial technology development. We aim to connect world-class space innovation to military end-users at pace, supported by business and commercialisation training referred to as the Allied Defence Accelerator, provided by the internationally-recognised accelerator Starburst Aerospace.

2.2 Scope

Allied Defence Accelerator

On behalf of Dstl, the UK MOD and US DOD, DASA is looking for potential defence solutions that are able to keep pace with the rapid technological change seen in the commercial sector. This competition is therefore focused on technologies that have proven commercial value, with potential to be applied to military space capability problems. Your solution may therefore be an adaptation of an existing non-defence solution.

If you have a solution that matches this scope and meets one of the competition challenges in section 3, you can access the virtual learning environment, hosted by DASA and the Allied Defence Accelerator. This will feature:

• Challenge webinars. These will allow the sponsors for each challenge to give a presentation on the origins, context, and background to the challenge – allowing you to ask questions in an open forum and gain a clearer understanding of each challenge.
• Commercialisation webinars. This is an opportunity for mentors and support services to provide presentations on topics including business development for dual-use technologies, as well as providing guidance on adapting and scaling a business for international defence entities.

Please sign up to the webinars on the virtual learning environment. These webinars will be recorded and made available on the virtual learning environment. The purpose of these different webinars is three-fold: to increase 1) investment readiness, 2) transition confidence, and 3) opportunities for international adoption for global security and prosperity. Throughout this accelerated support process, you will be able to submit proposals to the competition (provided that you have completed the registration questionnaire). Following technical assessment, innovators with successful proposals will be invited to participate in the Allied Defence Accelerator training programme to prepare presentations for a chance at funding and contract award on Pitch Day.

International Space Pitch Day

The current scheduled dates for International Space Pitch Day are the 16 and 17 November 2020, overlapping with the Defence Space Conference in London. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, this event may be held virtually. Only those who pass technical assessment during the competition phase will be eligible to attend Pitch Day.

Innovators invited to Pitch Day will be strongly encouraged to take part in pitch training sessions, and design sprints under the Allied Defence Accelerator, run by Starburst Aerospace. Individual organisations shall decide if they wish to share proprietary information whilst participating in these optional practice sessions.

Innovators invited to Pitch Day will also be expected to provide any commercial clarifications prior to the day, to permit rapid same-day contracting for successful pitchers.

Funding contracts will only be placed with innovators selected for funding by the Pitch Day judging panel. The panel’s decision will be based entirely on the pitches given on the initial pitch day.

Specifically, innovators invited to pitch at International Space Pitch Day will be expected to provide:

• a private pitch on 16 November to the Pitch Day panel, consisting of senior members of UK MOD and US DOD, who will make a decision on whether to award funding to the innovator. Any information shared during this pitch will be kept confidential and be used solely for the purposes of evaluating the pitch.
• a public presentation on 17 November with a wider audience, including non-government attendees. Suppliers should ensure to tailor their pitches to avoid public disclosure of any of their sensitive proprietary information.

For full timelines, including webinar dates and deadline for submissions, please see section 6.

3. Challenges

This competition has 6 challenges, which have been curated by the problem sponsors. All submitted proposals must meet one or more of the following challenges:

3.1 Challenge 1: visualisation of key events and information, including system status of health monitoring, in near real-time, for combined space operations with allies and commercial partners

User narrative: “I am a military officer, conducting multi-national combined space operations. I need to visualise and understand what is happening in relation to a significant space event (such as a conjunction) involving one or more space objects. This will support the sharing of information with allies and commercial partners who are not in the same physical location, and will enable me to make informed recommendations to senior decision-makers about potential national responses and their implications. In order to achieve this understanding, I need to know how the current situation has developed, what is happening now, and what might happen soon.”

3.2 Challenge 2: visualisation to help a commander in the field to understand satellite systems relevant to their operations

User narrative: “As the commander of a military unit conducting an operation against a technologically-sophisticated adversary, I want to visualise and understand the space-based systems (friendly, adversary, and third party/commercial) that are operating over the area, as well as the services and support they are providing my operation. This will allow me to articulate which services I need as a priority, such that the allocation of satellite services can be prioritised within a multi-national architecture. This will improve my ability to make informed decisions regarding when and how my force should move and communicate.”

3.3 Challenge 3: understanding the present and potential impact of space weather on users across all domains

User narrative: “I am an officer working in a joint headquarters helping to plan the next phase of a military operation involving maritime, land, and air forces. I want to be able to understand what impact space weather (by effect type, for example - types of charging, atmospheric scintillation, and increased drag) has or may have on my operations. I am responsible for understanding the current state of health of different assets under my command or that influence the effective operations of the architecture. These assets are often owned/managed by a wide variety of groups and stakeholders (i.e. UK MOD, US DOD, commercial industry, ESA, or NASA). I therefore tend not to have an ‘at-a-glance’ understanding of what their current availabilities are, or if they have any projected maintenance/down-times that could negatively affect mission during a critical time if not mitigated. A tool or service that helps me manage this by providing a synopsis of current and expected outages during a shift would help me plan and respond as needed.”

3.4 Challenge 4: provision of training against realistic threats and opportunities, incorporating live data, synthetic hazardous situations, and integrating space across multiple domains

User narrative: “I am the commander of a small military force (such as the captain of a warship, the commander of a tank squadron or the leader of an aircraft formation). The force is undertaking a synthetic rehearsal of its next mission, against a technologically-sophisticated adversary. I want to be able to experience potential space events and effects so that I can understand how they may affect the operation. This will help me address threats and capitalize on opportunities as they present themselves.”

3.5 Challenge 5: enabling multi-level security for a Common and User-Defined Operational Pictures to support multi-nation Space Domain Awareness and Command and Control

User Narrative: “As the Commander of the Combined Force Space Component, I am responsible for a coalition force with sophisticated space capabilities. In order to support combined operations with my space capabilities, my Operations Centre must be able to create the space operations plan and issue it to subordinate units for execution. To ensure shared awareness across the coalition force, other coalition members need visibility of the space planning and execution process, including intelligence and information across multiple security levels. This awareness will be enabled by a Common Operational Picture, which includes bilateral and multilateral information sharing across multiple security levels, into a commonly accessible pool.”

3.6 Challenge 6: verification and comparison for Space Domain Awareness data, from a variety of sources and in a variety of formats to produce a single, reliable operational picture

User Narrative: “As the Commander of the Combined Force Space Component, I am responsible for ensuring the highest quality data is being integrated into our system, so it produces an accurate common operational picture and provides the best support to combined operations. In order to maximize available data, the system must make use of all available sources, both military and commercial, and conduct sufficient processing and checks to ensure consistency of calibration and presentation of satellite data. This tool must also be capable of comparing multiple satellite catalogues in a variety of formats, in addition to enabling one vs one comparisons in a variety of formats. This is so that I can understand the difference between the various catalogue perceptions, and verify that the correct satellites are being assessed. If a new satellite is discovered and an orbit submitted, I would like to know the probability of this being a new satellite, or a satellite already tracked by another system. Since most catalogues have more than 20 objects, I need a dashboard that can provide me with an ‘at a glance’ view of satellites of interest. This will help me to single out the satellites that require deeper analysis.”

3.7 Clarification of what we want

We want novel ideas to benefit users working in UK MOD and US DOD. Your proposal should include evidence of:

• theoretical development and/or methodological advancement which can demonstrate clear commercial-military dual-use
• innovation or a creative approach
• how the proposed work applies to the chosen challenge and user narrative

3.8 Clarification of what we don’t want

For this competition we are not interested in proposals that:

• constitute consultancy, paper-based studies or literature reviews which just summarise the existing literature without any view of future innovation (which therefore cannot be extended into later procurement processes)
• are an identical resubmission of a previous bid to DASA or MOD without modification
• offer no real prospect of integration into defence space capabilities
• offer no real prospect of out-competing existing technological solutions
• do not provide dual-use military and commercial options downstream

4. Exploitation

This competition is aimed at ensuring that ideas are matured and accelerated towards appropriate end-users to enhance capability at pace. How long this takes will be dependent on the nature and starting point of the innovation. However, by early identification of end-users and appropriate engagement during the competition, innovators will be equipped with the tools needed to develop and implement a rapid exploitation plan.

Proposals submitted for Pitch Day should articulate the expected development in technology maturity of the potential solution over the course of the contract, and how this relates to improved operational capability against the current assumed baseline. Your deliverables should be designed to evidence these aspects with the aim of making it as easy as possible for potential stakeholders and investors to identify the innovative elements of your proposal in order to consider routes for exploitation. DASA Innovation Partners and Starburst Aerospace will be available to support you with articulating the defence context for your commercial technology.

Initially, you may wish to include some of the following information, if known, to help proposal assessors understand any existing exploitation plans:

• the intended defence or security users of your final product and whether you have previously engaged with them, their procurement arm or their research and development arm
• awareness of, and alignment to, any existing end-user procurement programmes
• the anticipated benefits (for example, in cost, time, improved capability) that your solution will provide to the user
• whether it is likely to be a standalone product or integrated with other technologies or platforms
• expected additional work required beyond the end of the contract to develop an operationally deployable commercial product (for example, “scaling up” for manufacture, cyber security, integration with existing technologies, environmental operating conditions)
• additional future applications and wider markets for exploitation
• wider collaborations and networks you have already developed or any additional relationships you see as a requirement to support exploitation
• how your product could be tested in a representative environment in later development
• any specific legal, ethical, commercial or regulatory considerations for exploitation

5. How to apply

Proposals for funding to meet one of the challenges must be submitted by Wednesday 2 September 2020 at midday BST via the DASA submission service, for which you will be required to register.

Innovators who wish to submit a proposal must first complete the compulsory registration questionnaire. This allows DASA and its partners to rapidly assess the suitability of the innovator and their technology for inclusion at Pitch Day. Failure to complete the registration questions by the deadline (Wednesday 19 August at midday BST) means you will be ineligible to submit a proposal.

The registration questions are hosted through an online survey format, and on completion you will be emailed with a unique participant number. You will be prompted to enter this within the submission service portal when you submit your proposal. Any information provided in response to the registration questions will not be shared outside of DASA and the US Department of the Air Force, who will assess for US contracting interests. This information will be shared solely for the purpose of supporting the assessment of the innovator and technology for the Accelerator and Pitch Day. Otherwise, this information will not be shared outside of DASA and will be stored on our secure server and deleted at the end of the competition. By completing the registration questions you are giving your consent for your responses to be used in this way. The deadline for completion of the registration questions is Wednesday 19 August 2020 at midday BST.

The questions that are asked during registration are as follows:

• company name and registration number
• company nationality/country of origin
• please list other countries that the company, its subsidiaries or its parent company operates in and the type of business activity in each location (e.g. sales, HQ, manufacturing, etc)
• is the company privately or publically-owned?
• what entities own, or invest, in the company?
• please list all previous, or on-going contracts by foreign nations or foreign entity hosting the contract
• who are the key partners of your company (for the specific purposes of the competition and Pitch Day)? Please answer not applicable if unknown.
• please detail the key resources you think you will need access to if you are given a contract (i.e. the Government Furnished Assets (GFA) you will require access to)
• please describe any commercial buy-in and support you have already obtained for your technological development.
• do you forsee any technological or developmental barriers to the successful deployment of your solution?
• what is your current understanding of who the key military beneficiaries of your solution are?
• would you like to add any additional information regarding the background of your company to provide additional transparency or clarification?

The Pitch Day is aimed at rapid development of capability that can be exploited through UK MOD and US DOD procurement routes. As such, we also ask you to confirm that your company is not headquartered in, does not manufacture in, nor has associated researchers from, any of the following countries:

• Republic of Cuba
• Islamic Republic of Iran
• State of Libya
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
• Republic of the Sudan
• Federal Republic of Somalia

The total available funding at Pitch Day is expected to be £800k (approximately $1M). Each proposal has a financial limit of £53k (approximately $67k), ex VAT. Proposals must be costed in British pound sterling (GBP). If successful, contracts will be awarded for a maximum duration of 3 months.

Further guidance on submitting a proposal is available on the DASA website.

Please see below flow diagram outlining key competition dates:

5.1 What your proposal must include

The proposal should focus on the challenges in this document, but must also include a brief (uncosted) outline of the next stages of work required for exploitation.

Proposals must be an appropriate length that it will take our reviewers no more than 45 minutes to assess (as a guide, this is about 3000 words or 6 pages, if copied from a Word document). It is noted that this advice differs from other DASA competitions where we advise no more than 90 minutes for assessment. This shortened assessment time is to reflect the comparatively low value of funded proposals.

When submitting a proposal, you must complete all sections of the online form, including an appropriate level of technical information to allow assessment of the bid and a completed finances section. Completed proposals must comply with the financial rules set for this competition. The upper-limit for proposals in this competition is £53k, in GBP (approximately $67k), ex VAT. Proposals will be rejected if the financial cost exceeds this capped level. It is also helpful to include a list of other current or recent government funding you may have received in this area if appropriate, making it clear how this proposal differs from other work.

A project plan with clear milestones and deliverables must be provided. Deliverables must be well-defined and designed to provide evidence of progress against the project plan and the end-point for this phase; they must include a final report. You should also plan for attendance at a kick-off meeting at the start of the contract and an end of project presentation, as well as regular reviews with the appointed Technical Partner and Project Manager. For UK suppliers, all meetings will be in the UK, with the kick-off meeting and end-of-project presentation to be held at Dstl Porton Down. However, this is dependent on the ongoing COVID-19 situation, and meetings may be held virtually. For international suppliers, you should assume all meetings, including the kick-off meeting and end of project presentation, will take place over phone or video conferencing facilities. Your proposal must demonstrate how you will complete all activities/services and provide all deliverables within the competition timescales (3 months). Proposals with any deliverables (including final report) outside the competition timeline will be rejected as non-compliant.

A resourcing plan must also be provided that identifies, where possible, the nationalities of those proposed research workers that you intend working on this phase. In the event of proposals being recommended for Pitch Day, DASA will undertake due diligence checks including the clearance of proposed Research Workers. Please note that in order to complete this process in time for Pitch Day, you are asked to provide any further details as soon as requested as part of the commercial clarification process.

Due to project duration, we are unable to accept any proposals that require MODREC approval. For more information on ethical / legal / regulatory factors, please see the DASA guidance. If you are still unsure if your proposal would require MODREC approval, please contact DASA for further guidance.

Requirements for access to GFA, for example, information, equipment, materials and facilities, should be included in your proposal. DASA cannot guarantee that GFA will be available.

Failure to provide any of the above listed will automatically render your proposal non-compliant.

5.2 Export control

Contracts awarded as a result of this competition will fall under an extant memorandum of understanding between the UK MOD and US DOD. This will facilitate the unimpeded exchange of proposals, prototypes and associated information between the UK and US governments. However, this effective exemption from export controls only applies to the UK and US, not to third countries, and all bidders must therefore abide by the export control requirements of their originator country. All relevant export control regulations will apply if a company ultimately wants to sell a developed solution to a foreign entity. All bidders must ensure that they can obtain, if required, the necessary export licences for their proposals and developments, such that they can be supplied to the UK and US. Please ensure you detail in your proposal any deliverables that you believe to be export controlled and the stage you are at regarding arranging export licences. If we believe that you will not be able to obtain export clearance, additional checks may be conducted, which may also result in your proposal being sifted out of the competition.

Specific to US applicants: US innovators must obtain the proper requisite export licence before submitting technical information to DASA. The Department of State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) has been advised of the competition and is prepared to facilitate rapid processing of these licences. In addition, bidders are strongly encouraged to review relevant export control sections of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), to ascertain if any sections pertain to the requested activity, noting that recent amendments expedite processing of licences for export to the UK. Pertinent information should be referenced in the applicant’s transmittal letter and in Block 20 (Purpose) of the permanent export licence form (DSP-5) before submitting application to the DDTC. The bidder may wish to review the guidelines for an export licence request prior to submission. This information can be found on the DDTC website.

5.3 Public-facing information

When submitting your proposal, you will be required to include a proposal title and a short abstract. The title and abstract you provide will be used by DASA, and other government departments, to describe the project and its intended outcomes and benefits. It will be used for inclusion at DASA events in relation to this competition and included in documentation such as brochures. The proposal title will also be published in the DASA transparency data on GOV.UK, along with your company name, the amount of funding, and the start and end dates of your contract

5.4 How your proposal will be assessed

Initially, all proposals will be checked for compliance with the competition document and the registration criteria, and may be rejected before full assessment if they do not comply. Only proposals which demonstrate compliance against the registration questions, competition scope, and DASA mandatory criteria will be taken forward to full assessment. Failure to achieve full compliance against these will render your proposal non-compliant and it will not be considered any further.

Mandatory Criteria

The proposal outlines how it meets the scope of the competition	Within scope (Pass) / Out of scope (Fail)
The proposal fully explains in all three sections of the DASA submission service how it meets the DASA assessment criteria	Pass / Fail
The proposal clearly details a financial plan, a project plan and a resourcing plan to complete the work proposed during the contract	Pass / Fail
The proposal confirms that no MODREC approval is needed	Pass / Fail
The proposal identifies any GFA required	Pass / Fail
The maximum value of the proposal is £53k (approximately $67k)	Pass / Fail
The proposal demonstrates how all research and development activities/services (including delivery of the final report) will be completed within 3 months from award of contract (or less)	Pass / Fail
The supplier has completed the registration questionnaire	Pass / Fail
The bidder has obtained the authority to provide unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions of the Contract	Pass / Fail

Proposals that pass this stage will then be assessed against the standard DASA assessment criteria (Desirability, Feasibility and Viability) by subject matter experts from Dstl, MOD, and DOD. You will not have the opportunity to comment on assessors’ comments.

DASA reserves the right to disclose on a confidential basis any information it receives from you during the procurement process to any third-party engaged by DASA for the specific purpose of evaluating or assisting DASA in the evaluation of your proposal. For the specific purposes of considering additional funding for a competition and onward exploitation opportunities, DASA also reserves the right to share information in your proposal in-confidence with any UK and US Government Department. In providing such information you consent to such disclosure. Appropriate confidentiality agreements will be put in place.

Further guidance on how your proposal is assessed is available on the DASA website.

After assessment, proposals will be discussed internally at a Decision Conference where, based on the assessments, budget and wider strategic considerations, a decision will be made on the proposals that are invited to participate in the Accelerator and present at Pitch Day.

Proposals that are not invited to Pitch Day will receive brief feedback after the Decision Conference.

If your proposal is successful, you must also be prepared to assist DASA in preparation for the Pitch Day. You must respond to requests for commercial clarifications, as well as relevant presentation materials (such as slide-decks). Failure to do so could result in your invitation being withdrawn.

If invited to Pitch Day, you will be encouraged to take part in in face-to-face (most likely virtual) end-user engagement and pitch training. You must pass all commercial clarifications requested prior to the day, in order to enable same-day contracting.

Funding contracts will only be placed with innovators selected for funding by the Pitch Day judging panel. The panel’s decision will be based entirely on the pitches given on Pitch Day.

5.5 Things you should know about DASA contracts

Please read the DASA terms and conditions which contain important information for suppliers. For this competition we will be using the Innovation Standardised Contracting (ISC) Contract Model, links to the contract here: Terms and Schedules. We will require unqualified acceptance of the terms and conditions. For the avoidance of any doubt, for this competition we are NOT using the DASA Short Form Contract (SFC). Funded projects will be allocated a Project Manager (to run the project) and a Technical Partner (as a technical point of contact). In addition, the DASA team will work with you to support delivery and exploitation. We will use deliverables from DASA contracts in accordance with our rights detailed in the contract terms and conditions.

For this competition, approximately £800k ($1M) is currently available to fund proposals. There may be occasions where additional funding from other funding lines may subsequently become available to allow us to revisit those proposals deemed suitable for funding but where limitations on funding at the time prevented DASA from awarding a subsequent contract. In such situations, DASA reserves the right to keep such proposals in reserve. In the event that additional funding subsequently becomes available, DASA may ask whether you would still be prepared to undertake the work outlined in your proposal under the same terms.

This competition is jointly funded by the UK MOD and the US DOD and will operate under an extant memorandum of understanding between both nations. On this basis, under DEFCON 705 (Edn 11/02), Full Rights Versions of Deliverables delivered under any resultant Contract will be shared in-confidence with US Department of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, under the Exploiting Emerging Commercial Space for CT (UK-US-2020-SC-4911) Task Plan of the Combatting Terrorism Research and Development (CTRD) MOU.

6. Key dates

Competition overview	Wednesday 29 July 2020, 15:00 - 16:00 BST
Challenge 1 webinar	Wednesday 29 July 2020, 17:00 - 18:00 BST
Challenge 2 webinar	Thursday 30 July 2020, 16:00 - 17:00 BST
Challenge 3 webinar	Thursday 30 July 2020, 17:00 - 18:00 BST
Challenge 4 webinar	Tuesday 4 August 2020, 16:00 - 17:00 BST
Challenge 5 webinar	Tuesday 4 August 2020, 17:00 - 18:00 BST
Challenge 6 webinar	Thursday 6 August 2020, 16:00 - 17:00 BST
Webinar focused on investment readiness, transition confidence, and international adoption (in the UK)	Monday 10 August 2020, 16:00 - 18:00 BST
Webinar focused on investment readiness, transition confidence, and international adoption (in the US)	Wednesday 12 August 2020, 16:00 - 18:00 BST
Registration questionnaire deadline	Wednesday 19 August 2020 at midday BST
Proposal submission deadline	Wednesday 2 September 2020 at midday BST
International Space Pitch Day 2020 invites released/unsuccessful candidates notified	Wednesday 21 October 2020
Pitch Design Sprint 1	Between 26 and 30 October 2020
Pitch Design Sprint 2	Between 2 and 6 November 2020
Deadline for commercial clarifications	Wednesday 11 November 2020
International Space Pitch Day – private pitch	Monday 16 November 2020
International Space Pitch Day – public pitch	Tuesday 17 November 2020
Contracts placed	Tuesday 17 November 2020
Contracts end	By Tuesday 23 February 2021

Please sign up to the webinars on the virtual learning environment.

7. Help

DASA has a network of regionally-based Innovation Partners, who are available to provide guidance to suppliers on submitting to a competition. If you would like guidance, please submit an outline of your idea via the DASA website. This will be sent to an Innovation Partner who will contact you within ten working days to discuss.

While all reasonable efforts will be made to answer queries, DASA reserves the right to impose management controls if volumes of queries restrict fair access of information to all potential suppliers. If you are experiencing technical difficulties with the submission service, please contact accelerator@dstl.gov.uk.